This book kind of blew my mind -- partly because the near-future world is so compelling and appealing, partly because it's such a tricky romance. I mean, if we're going for a revisionist history, I like this one. I don't completely understand the religious overtones of their genetic system, and I have to admit that most of the book is fairly sedate on an adventure scale, but I really like that about it. I like that it's about the slow awakenings of romance and idyllic summer and neo-victorian social mores. That part is fascinating. I love it for having an intersex character and a bisexual one at that. I also really love the love is hard work model, and their three way relationship at the end. Pretty sweet, in a fairy tale kind of way. ( )

Very odd. The plot is about as thick as a sweet dream romance but its set in an alternate reality. I wish I knew what point the author was trying to make here. ( )

This is an imaginative speculative book that wonders how the world would look under a current (and more integrated) British Empire. It shows the messy and tangled nature of love and lifelong friendship and imagining complex solutions to thorny problems. I enjoyed this book quite a bit. ( )

A pleasant, enjoyable read! It’s basically a teen Regency romance set in an almost-utopia, with added Canadian flavour, and yes, it’s about as fun and fluffy as that sounds. The romance is sweet and believable, the characters are all likeable, the world-building is pretty well thought out, and the whole thing reads lightly. I appreciated the diversity a lot—there are queer and disabled characters and because of the world-building pretty much everyone is mixed-race, and nobody makes a big deal of any of it. It’s also the first novel I’ve read with an intersex heroine.

I had a bit of cognitive dissonance as a Canadian, though. Part of that’s because I’m West Coast Canadian and so don’t know Toronto or cottage country culture, partly because the idea of modern Canada but with everyone in presumably Victorian outfits felt weird, and partly because the Canadians still speak with British inflections. It was refreshing to see Canadian rep that isn’t just about beavers and Mounties and saying “eh” a lot, though, and fun to see Canadian folk songs playing during the balls.

I also don’t want to interrogate the world-building too deeply. The way history’s different because the British Empire’s still around is interesting and doesn’t shy away from bad things, and the conceit of a genetic database that doubles as a social media-style matchmaker is equally cool, but I don’t want to poke too hard at either element for fear of it all falling apart into plot holes. The database, for instance, is seen as a solely good thing, though it’s got potential to control lives.

Johnson also seemed weirdly fixated on the readers knowing some characters were of Chinese descent, to the point where I thought that surely would have some bearing on the climax. She doesn’t make nearly as much fuss about Black or indigenous heritage.

But this is also not a novel that demands to be read in detail. It’s a romance! It’s meant to entertain! The world-building’s there to give depth and aid and hinder the plot in turn! I enjoyed the read for sure, though I didn’t like it quite enough to enthuse over it at work, and definitely recommend it to anyone seeking diversity, teen romance, or to spend a few hours having fun.

Warnings: Brief moments of ableist or classist thinking. The Chinese weirdness I mentioned above.

7/10 ( )

if it weren't for the odd religious stuff that *wasn't* strictly about the monarchs, I LOVED THIS ( )